(Note: Yuanbao are sycee-shaped items traditionally used in ancient China as gold or silver currency. They resemble a dumpling or boat shape.)
To satisfy Sun Fatty's curiosity, I had no choice but to stay an extra day at my old home. That day, Grandpa and Third Uncle were busy all day preparing for the dam gate closure the next day.
The night passed quietly. At 8 a.m. the next morning, when Sun Fatty and I arrived at the riverbank, the dam gates were already being shut. As the river gradually narrowed, half an hour later, the water finally drained away, and the riverbed — which had been hidden underwater all day — finally saw the sunlight.
On both banks of the riverbed, the Shen clan had already gathered. Once the water dried up, the riverbed was exposed, covered with mossy reefs, and fish and shrimp that hadn't had time to swim away jumped in several shallow pools. About a hundred people jumped down onto the riverbed and started searching downstream. Within minutes, they had results.
"Got it! It's gold!" My distant cousin shouted excitedly nearby, holding a golden yuanbao in his hands. The crowd around him instantly stirred with excitement.
Using him as a sample, everyone else bent down and started carpet-searching the riverbed.
"I've got one here too!"
"Me too!"
"Dad, several up ahead... Damn, too bad they're silver."
The yuanbao kept increasing, and these people's nerves were getting more and more frayed.
I stood on the riverbank, watching the scene, starting to feel something was off. But what felt even stranger was Sun Fatty's unusual behavior. Just like the previous night, seeing the ground littered with yuanbao, he showed no interest at all. That wasn't the Sun Dasheng I knew.
"Dasheng, why don't you go down and take a look?" I tried to coax Sun Fatty. But he just sneered and reasoned, "If it were only the two of us here, I'd definitely pick some up. But now, there are hundreds of people…" He paused, looked at me, and said, "Lazi, I'm telling you, your grandpa is a smart man. He already said that after picking up the yuanbao, they'll be redistributed, and in the end, who knows who it really belongs to. So why should I bother?"
"Forget it for today. That good chance the night before, with yuanbao all over the place, you didn't even move a finger."
"Don't remind me. It's all that old Ouyang Pianzuo's fault, scaring me for no reason." Sun Fatty pulled out a cigarette and handed me one, lighting one himself. "When I was at the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation, Ouyang Pianzuo told me all kinds of ghost stories. One of them was about evil ghosts who give out gold and silver at midnight, but by dawn, those gold and silver yuanbao turn into paper offerings burned for the dead. When I saw those yuanbao, I remembered Ouyang Pianzuo's story and got scared they'd turn to paper at dawn. Such a pity, even if I got half of them, it'd be quite a lot..."
While we chatted idly, trouble happened downstream on the riverbed. At first, people found only a few yuanbao here and there, but as they moved further downstream, the number of yuanbao they found increased dramatically, reaching a peak near a large water pit. Normally, it took dozens of steps to see one yuanbao; now, around this pit, thousands were densely scattered — mostly gold yuanbao with a few silver ones mixed in.
The eyes of hundreds of people on the scene lit up. Today was really their lucky day. If they could divide these yuanbao, they'd be rich beyond imagination in the next life.
Though there were many yuanbao, there were even more "wolves." In just over ten minutes, the yuanbao were divided up cleanly. Further downstream, the yuanbao disappeared completely, not a single one could be found.
The crowd wasn't willing to give up, pacing back and forth several times, but found nothing. Finally, they returned to the place with the most gold yuanbao — the large water pit — hoping for another stroke of luck.
The water pit was about ten meters in diameter. Its water was black and deep, bottom invisible. Suddenly someone in the crowd asked, "Could there still be gold in this pit?" More than one person had this thought. Since so many gold yuanbao had been found here, some wondered if they were actually emerging from this pit.
My dad and grandpa discussed briefly and called me to bring a bamboo pole used for pushing boats. Sun Fatty and I brought the pole to them. Dad took it and slowly pushed it into the pit's water. After pushing almost seven or eight meters in, less than half a meter of the pole was left, and he still hadn't touched the bottom.
Dad wanted to check the pit's bottom by poking with the pole. Suddenly, his body tilted sideways, almost falling into the pit. Fortunately, I was quick and grabbed him the moment he lost balance.
Grandpa looked at his still-shaken eldest son and said, "Oldest, what happened? Are you okay?"
"There's something down there…" Dad's cold sweat had already broken out. "It fought me for the pole and almost dragged me in."
Grandpa frowned, "Nonsense, didn't you just lose your footing?"
Dad turned over his two bloody palms, "If something hadn't grabbed the pole underwater, how could my hands be cut like this? By the way, where's the pole?"
Only then did people notice that the bamboo pole, which should have been floating at the surface, was nowhere to be seen in the pit.
With hundreds of eyes fixed on the pit, suddenly a loud bubbling sound came. A big splash surfaced at the bottom of the pit, with over a hundred gold yuanbao swirling inside the rolling water.
Then a second, a third splash followed, each containing a substantial number of gold yuanbao.
There was gold in the water! Everyone's eyes lit up again. The splashes became more frequent, accompanied by continuous "gurgling" sounds. Suddenly, the water in the pit rapidly drained, as if a powerful pump was pulling all the water away.
Seeing that the water was gone, everyone walked ahead and leaned forward to look into the pit. The first to do so was the old Taoist, Xiao Heshang. The moment he peered in, he shouted, "Something's wrong! Get back!" As he yelled, he pushed the people behind him backward. The others, not knowing what was happening, were startled. Then, suddenly, a plume of black smoke burst from the pit. Thanks to Xiao Heshang's warning, everyone had been on guard, so nothing went wrong.
"Everyone fall back! Quick! Back up!" Xiao Heshang shouted several more times. The crowd quickly retreated. Within moments, three or four more plumes of black smoke rose from the pit. After about twenty more minutes, the smoke stopped coming.
"What's down there?" Grandpa stepped forward, wanting to look into the pit himself, but my dad and Third Uncle held him back. "Don't cause more trouble," they said. After much persuasion, they finally convinced him to stay back.
Over at the pit's edge, Xiao Heshang was sitting on the ground. His face was as pale as a sheet, the front of his Taoist robe soaked through with sweat. He hung his head low, panting heavily. The people nearby had all backed off, not daring to approach, but also reluctant to leave.
"Make way, make way." Sun Fatty and I elbowed our way to the edge of the pit and looked down. It was pitch black; we couldn't see the bottom. The sound of flowing water had disappeared—most likely, the water inside was from an underground branch and had drained away along with the river water we had let out.
Sun Fatty looked at the bottom, then at me. "Lazi, can you tell what's going on?"
I shook my head. "Looks normal. Nothing seems off."
"You two, come help me up... I can't stand," Xiao Heshang muttered weakly.
Sun Fatty, probably naturally incompatible with him, couldn't help but gloat a little at his breathless state. "What's this, Old Taoist? Your legs are giving out already? I was wondering how you always manage to stay on the front lines—turns out it's because you can't walk away…"
Xiao Heshang glared at him, but there was nothing he could do. Getting Sun Fatty to help him was out of the question. In the end, I went over and helped him up. "Old Xiao, what did you see down there? You didn't even get this shaken up when you were performing the ghost opera the night before last. Don't tell me it was just a few wisps of black smoke?"
Xiao Heshang took a deep breath. "Don't ask. It's resentment and sin down there." When we pressed him further, he just kept shaking his head and refused to say another word.
At that moment, Grandpa came over with a group of people. He personally helped support Xiao Heshang. "Old Xiao, are you all right?"
"I'm not dead yet," Xiao Heshang replied with a bitter smile. "But enough chatter. Notify the dam right away—tell them to open the floodgates. We made a mistake. We can't let the Daqing River run dry."
Grandpa wanted to ask more, but Xiao Heshang was already getting frantic. "Save it for later! Old Shen, if we're late, forget about just your village—even the whole township and county will be in trouble! If something really happens and half the people don't die, I'll take your surname!"
Even though we didn't know exactly what was going on, Xiao Heshang's expression alone made it clear this was no trivial matter. Grandpa told my dad to call the dam and ask them to release water.
By the time we had all returned to the riverbank and were waiting for the water to be released, my dad had finished the call—but the news wasn't good. Before they could even open the gates, the dam's power distribution room had caught fire. Repairs were underway, but some replacement parts had to be fetched from the county. The whole process—round trip and repair—would take at least a day.
When Xiao Heshang heard this, he deflated like a balloon and just stared blankly at the pit in the riverbed. Sun Fatty and I kept watching it too. Other than the few plumes of black smoke, there didn't seem to be anything unusual. At first, we thought the smoke might've been corpse miasma, but we ruled that out quickly. We'd seen enough of that stuff to know—it was nothing like what we saw just now.
We tried questioning Xiao Heshang again, but he just kept shaking his head. When we pushed too hard, he would mutter, "Resentful spirits… what's down there are resentful spirits."
"Uncle Shen, you done here? I heard you called for the dam to release water?" The village chief rushed over as soon as he heard the news. He hadn't expected that in just a short time, all the sycee in the riverbed had already been picked clean. He thought something must've gone wrong.
"Don't bring it up—something has gone wrong." Grandpa pointed to the large pit in the distance and recounted what had happened.
"Is that even possible? Old Xiao said there are resentful spirits in there?" Judging by the looks on everyone's faces, the village chief realized they weren't joking. He scratched his head. "This really is trouble. Is there no way to deal with it?"
"Old Xiao said," Grandpa gestured at the still-dazed Xiao Heshang, "we'll have to wait until the dam releases water again. Once the pit is filled, it might be okay."
Hearing that, the village chief fell silent. He already knew about the dam's power failure. After a while, he came up with an idea. "Since the repairs will take time anyway, how about this—everyone head back and gather up what they've picked from the river. I'll assign a few militiamen to guard the pit and keep people away. Once the dam opens, it should be fine, right?"
It wasn't a bad plan. Grandpa spent some time persuading Xiao Heshang, and half-coaxing, half-dragging, brought him back to our house. On the way, Sun Fatty and I discussed the situation. Things at my old home were starting to get out of control—it was time to report this to the Bureau of Paranormal Investigation.